We have heard Obama's Chief of Staff say that they shouldn't let a crisis go to waste. After the awful events in Binghamton this morning, I am waiting for the liberals to amp up their harping about gun control again.
I was at a crime analysis conference last week where one of the speakers brought up the benefits of British gun control; only 61 firearm murders in England last year. I am assuming that this includes England and Wales only. I wanted to question him on the rise in violent crime in England and Australia after making it all but illegal to own a firearm but instead remained silent. There were about 3-400 cops there and I don't like to make waves.
The dirty secret is that in countries that have implemented strict gun control measures they have experienced dramatic increases in overall crime. These are the latest comparative international statistics I could find on crime victimization from 2002.
Look at the top three countries - all English speaking nations that have imposed draconian gun control. Look at #18, Switzerland, where all males must serve in the armed forces until the age of 29 and keep their government-issued automatic weapons in their homes.
Rank
#1 Australia: 30.1%
#2 New Zealand: 29.4%
#3 United Kingdom: 26.4%
#4 Netherlands: 25.2%
#5 Sweden: 24.7%
#6 Italy: 24.6%
#7 Canada: 23.8%
#8 Saint Kitts and Nevis: 23.2%
#9 Malta: 23.1%
#10 Denmark: 23%
#11 Poland: 22.7%
#12 France: 21.4%
#13 Belgium: 21.4%
#14 Slovenia: 21.2%
#15 United States: 21.1%
#16 Finland: 19.1%
#17 Austria: 18.8%
#18 Switzerland: 18.2%
#19 Portugal: 15.5%
#20 Japan: 15.2%
Weighted average: 22.4%
DEFINITION: People victimized by crime (as a % of the total population). Data refer to people victimized by one or more of 11 crimes recorded in the survey: robbery, burglary, attempted burglary, car theft, car vandalism, bicycle theft, sexual assault, theft from car, theft of personal property, assault and threats. Crime statistics are often better indicators of prevalence of law enforcement and willingness to report crime, than actual prevalence.
SOURCE: UNICRI (United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute). 2002. Correspondence on data on crime victims. March. Turin
It shows that in countries with the tightest gun control, nearly a third of the population has been the victim of a crime.
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